The Roses in the Recollection
by GalaxieGurl
Summary: Booth's mother shares memories with Brennan.
1. Chapter 1

Some people are born under a harvest moon, or another astrological sign. Perhaps Seeley Booth had been born under the influence of Aztec Xochiquetzal, Irish Clíodhna, or Egyptian Hathor; goddesses of love Brennan knew well from her anthropological studies. Over the years of their 'just partners' friendship which had deepened into so much more, Brennan had learned that he had a sweet romantic bent, but she didn't realize how ingrained this tendency was. It seems her husband had always been an incurable romantic.

The unexpected return of Jared and Booth's mother Marianne evoked mixed reactions from her sons. Being the younger child, Jared was a bit more happy go lucky, with fewer dark childhood memories. He'd welcomed her back more readily than Booth, finding it easier to accept her excuses, just glad to see her after all these years.

Booth had always given his mother an enormous benefit of the doubt, believing she'd left to protect herself without any chance of returning. To learn than she had helped raise another man's kids, when her own still needed her, was a bitter pill to swallow. Her happy assertion that she'd followed his career and seen his success, did little to soothe his hurt or quiet the raging accusations he wanted to shout at her. "WHY didn't you come back for us? Your own sons needed you!"

His forgiving soul had eventually reasserted itself, and Booth buried his disappointment enough to walk her down the aisle as she married Reggie, obviously a good man who loved her. Their "Continental" dance around the Mighty Hut's living room and the sight of his old lime green snout-nosed Philly Phanatic in Christine's arms reminded him of happier moments with Marianne. Accepting her for the clay footed human being she was, Booth graciously rose above the situation and reminded Brennan why she loved this big hearted man so much.

Visiting them from time to time, his mother spoiled Christine and tried to make up for the past in her own way. Talking with Brennan over cups of Earl Grey tea, she also shared a few stories of Booth's childhood. The most significant to Temperance involved long-ago warming spring days, when an eight-year old Seeley had often followed Jared through the front door after school and offered his mother thrust a fistful of wildflowers.

Marianne recalled fondly that the stubby-stemmed tiny blooms had been a riot of color, and Brennan smiled back, remembering the botany lessons Max had shared with her when he had the time to walk her home from school, once Russ joined Burtonville Junior High football squad's afternoon practices.

Knowing that Pennsylvania's wild flowers weren't too different from those of Ohio, Brennan imagined that Booth walking home from school would have picked the dainty little yellow flowers of clover-like Yellow Wood Sorrel _Oxalis stricta_ , and purple kamias _Averrhoa bilimbi_. He'd have pulled some pink matchweed _Phyla nodiflora_ blooms, the tiny white flowers of Common chickweed _Stellaria media_ , and purple or pink trumpet shaped Henbit flowers, _Lamium amplexicuale_. (A member of the mint family, her dad had said). And most likely her favorite, the 'bunny-faced' blue spreading dayflower, _Commelina diffusa._ Noticing her far-off gaze, Marianne had asked what she was thinking, and Brennan had recounted her father's frequent child-sized science lectures.

On a more recent visit, hearing about Pop's passing, Marianne grew quiet. She wiped a tear that trickled down her cheek and put her hands in her lap. She spoke so quietly that Brennan had to listen carefully to catch her words. Several years after taking in Booth and Jared, Pops had been selected to represent the Philadephia Police Department at a week-long Mid-Atlantic Crime Prevention Task Force Consortium in New York in mid-February. This critical meeting to combat urban street crime had coincided with Valentine's Day and twelve year old Seeley worried that his grandfather's absence would sadden Grams. His paper route had given him some spending money, and he hit upon a solution to cheer her up. Shouldering his backpack after school, he'd hopped on his bicycle and pedaled down the street.

His grandmother noticed but frequently sent him to the corner market for milk or bread, and decided to see what he was up to. Twenty minutes later, her older grandson re-entered the house, grabbed an apple, poured a glass of juice, grabbed a handful of cookies and headed upstairs to do homework. The old lady held her counsel and waited. An hour later as she was ironing in the living room, she heard him rummaging in the basement, and pretended not to notice his stealthy return through the kitchen.

At dinnertime, she called the two boys to the table. They trooped in with huge grins on their faces, hands thrust behind their backs. Jared produced a card and a vase, and Seeley carefully handed her a bouquet of vibrant red rose buds.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Grams!" they chorused.

"Mr. McCarthy said the buds would open soon,"" Seeley told her hopefully. "They aren't quite as pretty right now, but he said they will last longer this way."

" "How did you get these flowers home?" Grams said she asked him. "Hid them in my backpack!" he told her proudly." Grams thought he was quite clever to come up with that idea."

"Of course, she assured the boys they were perfect, and her preference," Marianne said softly. "Margaret told me that story the last time I called to check on the boys before she learned she had cancer. I should have gone back for her funeral, but it had been so long, and I didn't know what to say, any more than I did when I came back before our wedding. I made a mess of being their mother, but somehow, they turned out okay. Thanks mainly to Hank and their Gram, rest their souls."

She looked up wistfully. "My son turned out to be a good man, didn't he? I think he is the best of Joe and me. He's protective and caring. Both he and Jared are brave, served their country, just like Pops and their dad; but got some of his bad tendencies too. The drinking, the temper. But Seeley's more serious, always was; looked out for me, for his brother, trying to shield us from Joe's rages. I'm glad he's got you, Temperance. You've made him happy, given him peace. You've built a good life together, your home, little Christine, both your kids," she smiled, gesturing at Brennan's rounded abdomen.

"Yes, we have. He completes me. I guess we complete each other," Brennan said simply. "He brings me flowers and roses often, mostly unexpectedly. Calls them 'just because' bouquets," she told Booth's mother.


	2. Chapter 2

Apology: Regret in the Redress

Christine Angela Booth was predictably a very focused little girl, having inherited considerable brain power from her talented parents. She had Brennan's ability to concentrate and Booth's sense of duty. She was very serious about preparing for her upcoming First Communion, as intensely as her mother had studied for her doctoral degree. Since Christmas each night before sharing a bedtime story, she had worked with her dad to memorize catechism passages and several short prayers she'd need to know during the traditional liturgical services.

Ever since Marianne Booth's first visit to Booth and Brennan's home during Christine's infancy, her father's stuffed plush lime green Philly Phanatic had occupied a place of honor in her room. His childhood toy was one of her most prized possessions. She didn't know, and wouldn't have cared, that the original special edition of the Flyers' mascot for little girls had worn a ruffled red and white peppermint striped skirt, or that her Phanatic was the version intended for little boys. Nor did she remember receiving it from her grandmother when she was a baby. It had belonged to her Daddy, and that's all that mattered to Christine. It was a much a part of her childhood as the watermelon suckers Pops always hid in his sweater pockets for her to find. Christine had relished those suckers at Willow River Retirement Center and whenever he came to the Mighty Hut for a visit. Pops' death last fall had left a gap in the Brennan-Booth family. Her little brother Hank was too young to understand Pops' permanent absence, but Christine missed her great-grandfather very much.

She saw Grandpa Max all the time. In fact, next to Aunt Angela and Uncle Hodgins, he was her favorite babysitter. He played games with them, told the most amazing stories, and let her stay up later than her mother thought appropriate. And he played fair when it came to the Tickle Monster. First he would tickle her, then dissolve into hearty laughter when Christine tickled him in return.

She didn't see her Grammy, Booth's mother, nearly as often, but Marianne called on her dad's phone every month or so, and always asked to speak to her granddaughter before she said goodbye. When they traveled for an engagement, she sent Christine postcards from wherever she and Reggie were performing.

As the first Sunday in May approached, the little girl laboriously wrote a letter inviting Marianne to attend her First Communion Mass. Angela and Brennan had taken her shopping for a lacy white dress and short gauzy veil, and she wore them out trying to select her favorite. Having ice cream afterwards, the two teased her that the pile of rejected flouncy frocks in the dressing room outdid Cinderella's step sisters.

When May 15th arrived, the church was fragrant with bouquets of daisies and daffodils adorning the altar. Brennan had decided on this contribution to the ceremony in her daughter's honor. Little boys squirming in their Sunday best didn't enjoy the experience as much as the white-frocked little girls, but the patient nun had trained them well and they managed both relative silence and fairly good behavior. Christine left her seat to read a short scriptural passage without a hitch, causing sniffles from her Grammy and misty eyes from her dad. Brennan watched all this while keeping Hank occupied with cheerios, proud for her daughter and touched for her Booth.

After a celebratory luncheon at Sid's, the family returned home, shed their church duds, and headed to the backyard to try out Christine's new croquet set. When Brennan left to put Hank down for a much needed nap, Marianne turned to her son.

"Could I talk to you a minute in private," she asked quietly.

"Sure, Mom."

Booth settled his daughter in the family room to watch _Frozen_ for the millionth time, then took his mom down to the man cave. He pulled out a chair for her at the game table, then sat across from Marianne.

"What'cha need?"

"I owe you a long-overdue apology, Seeley. I can't tell Jared I'm sorry, now that he's gone, but I can tell you. I've given this a great deal of thought, and I need to get this off my chest. I should have taken you boys with me when I left your father. I wasn't as strong as I should have been. Leaving you with him was the worst thing I could have done as a mother."

"I've regretted it for years, and should have told you this long ago, but I was embarrassed and stupid. Not making contact for all those years is inexcusable. I talked to your Gram and Pops occasionally, keeping track of your progress in school, but I never had the guts to face you boys. The longer I was away, the worse I felt about what I'd done. I knew you shouldn't ever forgive what I did; there's no excuse for my decision to abandon you," Marianne shuddered slightly like a scolded child, and wiped her streaming eyes with an already-damp tissue.

"I'm not sure where you got your bravery, Seeley, because it certainly didn't come from me. I was the biggest coward alive. It's my fault your father took his anger out on you, after I left. I knew you'd protect Jared as best you could, just the way you tried to shield me. But that was my job, not the other way around."

"Your father loved us in his own way, and Viet Nam changed the man he was. They didn't understand PTSD back then, but that's no excuse for how he beat me or you. Alcohol and his demons…..he had terrible nightmares, but he made our lives a nightmare as well. I know I can never make this up to you, but I want you to know how sorry I am, as little as that means, all these years later."

"If it wasn't for your grandfather, Lord only knows what would have happened to you and Jared. He and Grams put you back together after Joe's abuse. But he never broke your spirit. Now that Pops is gone, I felt I needed to come clean with you. Saying I'm sorry doesn't change the past, but it's all I can do. I've been so proud of you all these years, but your courage makes me that much more ashamed of myself…" she stopped, choked by her tears, unable to speak anymore.

Booth stood up and wrapped his arm around his mother's shaking shoulders. He pulled her into a tight embrace and said gently, "Mom, I forgave you a long time ago. We're all human, and you did what you did. You protected us as best you could, til you couldn't take Dad's fury any more, I guess. Please forgive yourself."


End file.
